Chocolate Archives - Very EATalian

Pink Chocolate-dipped Cookies

February 11, 2020 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

Do you remember those pretty pasta frolla cookies with lots of jam and hearts? Well, I have more Valentine’s Day cookies for you: same delicious pastry dough, different shape, more hearts + a splash of color! Enter: Pink Chocolate-dipped Cookies!

I have to confess that one my favorite things to do is watching mesmerizing videos of colorful cookie decorating on Instagram. Another recent similar obsession is watching Zumbo’s Just Desserts on Netflix. Have you ever seen it? I’m totally blown away by the colors the contestants are able to create!

I really love color in dessert-making but I’m not a fan of artificial food coloring and I tend to refrain from using it in my cakes or cookies (the only exception is Olivia’s playdough!). A few years ago, I experimented with natural powder dyes in macarons but I had inconsistent results with taste…so it was a short-lived thing.

How do I get a naturally-colored pink cookie for Valentine’s Day, then? I first thought of using hibiscus after I saw these gorgeous mini hand pies by super talented Dev Amadeo…but then I found something else that’s natural and it’s pretty much ready to be used: hello Ruby Chocolate!

Pink Chocolate-dipped Cookies | Very EATalian

A NATURALLY PINK CHOCOLATE

Am I late to the party? Apparently so. Ruby Chocolate was introduced to the market a couple of years ago by Callebaut. They presented it as a “fourth” kind of chocolate (alongside dark, milk, and white) and it’s naturally pink because it derives from the ruby cocoa bean found mostly in South America. Besides its gorgeous rosy-pink hue, it’s surprising for its flavor: slightly acidic and semi-fruity, with a hint of berries.

Think of white chocolate and raspberries. That’s pretty much Ruby Chocolate, to me.

PINK CHOCOLATE-DIPPED COOKIES

To make these cute Pink Chocolate-dipped Cookies, you’ll just need to melt the Ruby Chocolate and dip the pasta frolla cookies in it. Finish them up with a nice sprinkle of heart-shaped nonpareils (OK, mine nonpareil are artificially colored…but they’re so tiny!).

Like any other type of chocolate, you should temper it in order to get a silky and shiny finish. This tutorial will guide you through the tempering process specific for Ruby Chocolate.

So, I think I’ve got Valentine’s Day covered this year. Jam-filled or pink glazed…both cookie options are delicious! While brainstorming, I even sketched out my cookie ideas –>

I hope you get to make these cookies and you can share them with your loved ones! If you make them, please share your photos and tag me with #veryeatalian! Grazie!! <3

Pink Chocolate-dipped Cookies

Servings 30 cookies

Author Very EATalian

Ingredients

30 pasta frolla cookies Recipe in notes
100 g ruby chocolate chips
nonpareils for sprinkling

Instructions

LAY YOUR BAKED COOKIES on a piece of parchment paper or a cooling rack.
USING A DOUBLE BOILER, melt the ruby chocolate chips using the tempering instructions provided by Callebaut (see notes).
SPOON the tempered chocolate on top of the cookies (alternatively, you can dip them). Before the chocolate cools off, sprinkle with non-pareil. Once the chocolate has hardened, they're ready to be served.

Notes

Pasta Frolla recipe: http://www.veryeatalian.com/jam-filled-pasta-frolla-cookies/

How to temper Ruby Chocolate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F72K1s8Zph8

Torrone dei Morti: Chocolate Hazelnut Torrone

November 2, 2016 By very EATalian 2 Comments

The Day of the Dead (commonly known in Italy as “i Morti“) is a Catholic festivity occurring on November 2nd, right after All Saints’ Day. This is when most Italians visit the cemeteries and bring fresh flowers — often mums, a flower representing mourning and death — to the tombs of their loved ones. Back home, my dad usually lights a few red candles (lumini) and puts them on the window sill as a way to remember those of our family who aren’t with us anymore.

…

Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake

September 5, 2016 By very EATalian 1 Comment

I made this Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake at least 5 times this past year. Yes, it’s THAT good.

To be completely honest though, there’s also another reason why I made it so often. I was never happy with the photos I took of it (bad lighting, low-performance camera or operator error??). At some point I just stopped trying, forgot about it, and moved on to other recipes.

A couple of days ago, I opened my infamous “discarded photo folder”. When I saw these shots again, I couldn’t believe I held back so long on sharing this delicious recipe because I was nit picky about ISO or lighting! I believe the quality of my work is of paramount importance, but sometimes I set the bar too high, my perfectionism kicks in and, alas, I end up stalling.

I’m SO happy to FINALLY share the photos and recipe for this yummy Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake with you guys!…

Italian Hot Chocolate + Pumpkin Cookies

November 16, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

My mom’s hot chocolate has magical powers. When she makes it, everybody suddenly appears around the kitchen table. Seriously. It’s like the house is empty and all of the sudden it’s loud, festive, and crowded with cousins and aunts. I can’t blame them. I can’t resist its powerful attraction either — her hot chocolate is juuust perfect. It’s not too sweet and it’s thick enough to give you a mustache when you drink it too fast. (Ok, maybe that only happens to me.)…

Sicilian Orangettes

August 13, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

Although I often brag with my friends I’m the least picky eater they know (I thoroughly enjoy foods most people turn down – i.e: oysters, cow’s tongue, tripe, stock fish, frog legs, blue cheese, etc.), for some strange reason candied fruit never made it on the long list of foods I eat. Every year at Christmas I take time picking out candied orange bits from my panettone slice – something I consider an unnerving behavior in others. Poor little candied fruit, so harmless and so sweet…pushed out of the plate in such a brutal way.

Luckily, taste changes over time. For me it was a sudden u-turn and since last Christmas I cannot think to have a panettone slice without those little jewel-like orange pieces. It just tastes so much better! …So, when Signora Milena (the same lady who generously provided me with the ingredients to make Pasta con le Sarde) gave me a little bag of candied orange peel from Sicily, my heart was happy. She suggested I made little orangettes by cutting the peel in strips and then dipping them in chocolate. What a neat idea! The recipe itself was straight forward and not difficult at all. Signora Milena didn’t mention anything about tempering chocolate. Since I’m a perfectionist and I ~~like to complicate my life~~ enjoy challenges, I decided to temper my chocolate to give it a glossy and smooth finish.

Tempering chocolate can be tricky and messy, if 1) you’ve never done it before and 2) you’re a human being. Simply put, you’ll need to melt your chocolate, then cool it to a certain temperature and then slightly warm it again. I recommend using a thermometer and some help, if you have it. I cooled my chocolate on a marble slab, agitating it with scrapers until it thickened. The seeding technique I explained in the recipe below is definitely easier, but still requires a good amount of precision.

Whether or not you like your chocolate tempered, you should try to make these little treats! They’re my favorite new thing to have with coffee. Yummy and cute…what a nice way to impress your guests!

Sicilian Orangettes

Prep time

40 mins

Total time

40 mins

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 5-6 servings

Ingredients

the peel of one candied orange (better if Sicilian), sliced in strips
5 oz good-quality dark chocolate (60-70%), roughly chopped (divided)

Instructions

Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Place ⅔ of your chopped chocolate in a clean bowl over simmering water and let it melt, without stirring, to about 115º-120º F (46º-49ºC). Be careful not to allow any splash of water into the bowl. Once ⅔ of chocolate are melt, remove bowl from the heat and stir frequently. Add the remaining chopped chocolate. Continue stirring gently. The chocolate will begin to thicken and become less shiny as it cools down. Once the chocolate reaches 80ºs F (27ºC.), warm it again to 88° and 91° F (31º-32ºC), by placing the bowl over the previously heated water. Try to keep chocolate at this temperature (*see notes).
Dip each orange strip half-way in chocolate and place them on the baking tray side by side. Refrigerate chocolate-dipped orange strips for 5 minutes. Then remove from the fridge and store at 16°C (61°F), away from moisture.

Notes

If chocolate temperature raises above 91° F (32ºC), you'll have to repeat the process all over again. If it drops below the 80°F (27°C), gently warm it up again to using temperature (88°-91°F or 31°C)

Torta Caprese: Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Cake

July 1, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

A couple of days ago I tried to make my husband’s birthday special with a little family celebration via Skype. I had everybody wear party hats and I drew a colorful poster as a background for our performance of a loud-and-out-of-tune Happy Birthday. Since I was at it, I also made a nice cake for the occasion. He loved the singing and the poster part. I’m pretty sure he hated me for showing him a cake he couldn’t eat.

Who makes a birthday cake for somebody when they can only see it and not taste it?

How painful, I know…But I’m a firm believer there’s no birthday without a cake…so I HAD to make it.

The cake I made was Torta Caprese and it’s hands down one of my favorite chocolate cakes. As the name suggests, this cake comes from the gorgeous Island of Capri, near Naples. Unlike most cakes, Torta Caprese has no flour but lots of ground almonds which give it a nice texture throughout. Also, there’s no baking powder in it – it’s leavened only by whipped egg whites. I read somewhere this recipe was created by mistake: the lack of flour was a complete accident made by a sleepy pastry chef. What a fortunate oversight! It’s at once light, rich, and moist…plus, chocolate and almonds are just made for each other.

This cake is definitely a no-frills cake and it’s so simple and delicious it perfectly stands on its own. All this cake begs for is a nice dusting of powdered sugar on top of its crispy and thin crust – a nice finishing touch to make it beautiful and elegant. If you really want to do something extra, have an espresso with it!

Here are the photos of the cake I made to ~~torture~~ celebrate my hubby!

[TANTI AUGURI, amoreeee!]

Torta Caprese - Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Cake

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

200 g (13 Tbsp + 1 tsp) butter, diced and softened
180 g (6.3 oz OR 1 scant cup) sugar (divided)
a pinch of salt
4 eggs
150 g (5.3 oz) dark chocolate
200 g (7 oz) almonds, toasted
powdered sugar

Instructions

Divide yolks from egg whites.
Cream softened butter with 140 g (2/3 cup) of sugar. Add salt and yolks, one at a time. Mix well to blend all the ingredients. Refrigerate the mixture.
Using a food processor, ground toasted almonds.
Preheat oven to 360 F (180 C).
Melt chocolate on a double boiler. Once melted, let it reach room temperature.
In a separate bowl, whip egg whites with the rest of the sugar to stiff peaks.
Add melted chocolate and ground almonds to butter mixture. Mix well. With a spatula, gently fold egg whites into mixture.
Pour batter into a greased 7-inch (18 cm) spring form pan and bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool off. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Notes

The cake should be moist inside.

Adapted from Sale&Pepe: http://www.salepepe.it/ricette/dolci-dessert/torte-crostate/torte/torta-caprese/

Baci di Dama – Lady’s Kisses

May 18, 2015 By very EATalian 3 Comments

*SIGH*

We’re in the middle of moving abroad and I’ll let you imagine all the craziness we’re dealing with. Our living situation for the next year won’t be exactly ideal — let’s say we’re going to go back to the long-distance relationship again. Alas, my husband and I have a lot of experience in this. The silver lining is that I get to go back to Italy for a while! I’ll get to see my family, my adorable nephew, my silly dog and cat, and eat lots of great and fresh Italian food…not necessarily cooked by me!

“Si, ciao mamma. Can you please greet me with a huge plate of prosciutto when I get home? I need to catch up for the time I was gone! I’ll have it with some cantaloupe. And a glass of prosecco. Grazie. Ciao.” The truth is, I don’t even need to ask for this. I know it will be there, waiting for me as soon as I step in the kitchen!

I’m looking forward to sharing more recipes and photos of all the places I love and miss so much.

So, while checking off some items from my long pre-departure to-do checklist and getting frustrated at my computer for not keeping up with the speed of my thoughts, I decided to take a break and find relief in the kitchen…baking cookies. It was the exact kind of meticulous work I needed to do to calm down my restless mind.

Baci di Dama are bite-size cookies that melt in your mouth. They look like two lips holding together a chocolate kiss, hence their cute name “Lady’s Kisses”. Their short crust is quite delicate and usually made of almonds or hazelnuts. The hazelnut version is from the city of Cuneo (where Nutella comes from), whereas the almond version is from the town of Tortona — both places are located in the Piedmont region, Northwest Italy.

The original recipe calls for the “tant-pour-tant” ingredient ratio, which means you need to use the same exact amount of each ingredient (butter, flour, sugar, hazelnut or almond). I used a recipe (from a lovely Italian food blog) that is slightly off that ratio but worked perfectly.

I have to be honest…Baci di Dama aren’t super easy to make…but stay with me! In order to achieve the delicate texture and cute dome shape they’re so famous for, you just have to follow a few basic rules:

– Ground the hazelnuts (or almonds) very finely
– Refrigerate the little dough balls for at least 30 minutes
– Bake at a low temperature (285°F/140°C or less, if you have a convection oven)
– Do not over-bake the cookies or they’ll lose their soft and delicate texture
– Do not touch them before they’ve completely cooled off!

That’s it. I added few more notes regarding the chocolate filling in the recipe below. I warn you–these little “kisses” are quite addictive! You’ll want to make them again.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Baci di Dama - Lady's Kisses

Prep time

1 hour 45 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

2 hours 5 mins

Author: Adapted from Pura Passione

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 35 cookies

Ingredients

100 g (3.5 oz) hazelnuts, chopped
90 g (3.2 oz) sugar
110 g (3.8 oz) all-purpose flour
20 g (0.7 oz) corn starch
a small pinch of salt
100 g (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, softened
70 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Instructions

Toast the hazelnuts in the oven at 360°F/180°C until lightly colored. Remove from the oven and rub them gently with a dish towel to remove their skin. Let them cool off completely.
Using a food processor, grind the toasted hazelnuts with the sugar until you obtain a sand-like consistency.
Pour your ground mixture into a bowl and add the flour, corn starch, and salt to it. Add the softened butter and work quickly with your fingertips to form the dough. Once the dough is smooth and uniform, refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
Line 2 small baking trays (they'll need to fit in the fridge!) with parchment paper. Roll the dough into ¾ inch (2 cm) logs and cut them into small pieces that weigh about 5 or 6 grams each (about the size of a nickel). Roll all pieces into small balls and placed them on the baking tray. Ensure they are spaced well as they will get a little bigger while baking.
Refrigerate again for 30 minutes (this will ensure the cookies will keep their dome shape).
Turn oven to 285°F/140°C. Bake one tray at the time for about 18-20 minutes. The cookie should be lightly colored on the bottom. Remove from the oven and place the baking tray on a cooling rack. DO NOT TOUCH cookies until they have cooled off otherwise they'll break. Once they've reached room temperature, taste-test one to ensure it's cooked through. If not, return to the oven for one or two more minutes.
Melt the chocolate on a double boiler. Once it's almost entirely melted, remove from the heat and let it rest for 5 min. Mix with a spatula to ensure it's all melted and let it cool off a bit until it becomes thicker and forms ribbons. Pair each cookie with another one of the same shape/size. With a teaspoon, drop a bit of chocolate on one half. The chocolate should be cool enough to not fall from one cookie, if you turn it 90 degrees (look at the photos above). Assemble Baci di Dama by placing the other half cookie on top. Twist the top part to make the chocolate spread evenly. Your Baci di Dama are ready!

Notes

The temperature and baking time varies according to the oven (convection or fan oven will require less time!). I suggest to test a small batch, first. The cookie should be lightly colored on the bottom. Do not bake longer than 20 minutes or the cookie will become too hard.